Ten longtime journalists, the president of the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters and the first Black woman in the Oklahoma City broadcast market will be among those honored at the 53rd annual luncheon and induction ceremony of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame.
The induction ceremony will begin at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, May 4, in the grand ballroom of the Nigh University Center at the University of Central Oklahoma.
“The 2023 induction class shows the quality of journalists who have spent most of their careers in Oklahoma,” said Director Joe Hight, who is also UCO’s Edith Kinney Gaylord Endowed Chair of Journalism Ethics and a OJHOF member since 2013. “This continues as Oklahoma’s highest journalistic honor because of that quality.”
The 2023 induction class will be Bill Braun, a courthouse reporter for 33 years at the Tulsa World; Andrea Eger, an education and investigative reporter for the World; Joey Goodman a longtime sportswriter and sports editor for The Lawton Constitution; Walter “Skipper” Harrison, a longtime journalist, editor and author before his death in 1961; Chris Lincoln, a sports director, network play-by-play announcer and sports production company owner; Don Mecoy, who just retired as managing editor for The Oklahoman; Dee Morales, a freelance national network reporter and producer who was among the first group of TV women reporters in Oklahoma; Chuck Musgrove, longtime managing editor of KFOR-TV; Myron Patton, sports talk show host and sports director at KOKH Fox 25; and Amy Raymond, a copy editor, designer and director at The Oklahoman before her death in 2021.
“First and foremost, the Selection Committee considers their qualities as a journalist. That combined with their other accomplishments distinguish them as future hall of fame members,” Hight said.
The 2023 Lifetime Achievement honorees will be Vance Harrison, the president of the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, and Joyce Jackson, the first Black woman journalist on Oklahoma television and now publisher of Shades of Oklahoma magazine.
“Vance and Joyce have served Oklahoma journalism in so many ways. It is our honor to add them to the growing list of Lifetime Achievement honorees,” Hight said.
All 12 honorees will become members of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, which now has inducted nearly 500 members since its beginning.
A 12-member selection committee, mostly hall of fame members, chose this year’s class and Lifetime Achievement honorees from nearly 85 nominations.
Invitations to the induction luncheon will be sent by the first of March, and reservations at $35 each must be made by April 20. More information on the reservations will be posted soon on the hall of fame website at okjournalismhalloffame.com.
The Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame was founded in 1971 by former UCO Journalism Chairman Dr. Ray Tassin and Dennie Hall, with both serving as directors. Hight is the fourth director and succeeded Dr. Terry Clark. All members are featured on the hall of fame website. Past honoree plaques are on display at the hall of fame on the third floor of UCO’s Nigh University Center.
Invitations to the induction luncheon will be sent by the first of March, and reservations at $35 each must be made by April 20. More information on the reservations will be posted soon on the hall of fame website at okjournalismhalloffame.com.
The Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame was founded in 1971 by former UCO Journalism Chairman Dr. Ray Tassin and Dennie Hall, with both serving as directors. Hight is the fourth director and succeeded Dr. Terry Clark. All members are featured on the hall of fame website. Past honoree plaques are on display at the hall of fame on the third floor of UCO’s Nigh University Center.
OKLAHOMA JOURNALISM HALL OF FAME 53rd ANNIVERSARY CLASS OF 2023:
BILL BRAUN (1952- ) spent almost his entire career at the Tulsa World. After graduating from the University of Oklahoma in 1974, he became a general assignment reporter at the Newkirk Herald-Journal. In 1976, he joined the Sherman (Texas) Democrat and later The Lawton Constitution. He started at the World in 1981 and spent 33 years covering every major trial at the Tulsa County District Court until he retired in 2014. In 2015, he received the Liberty Bell Award, the Tulsa County Bar Association’s highest honor for non-lawyers. He also has received the AP/Oklahoma News Executives Carl Rogan news award and the Marshall Gregory Award from the Oklahoma Education Association.
ANDREA EGER (1976- ) is an education and investigative reporter at the Tulsa World and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. After joining the World in 1999, she distinguished herself with award-winning investigations that sparked criminal charges against an athletic director and numerous child sexual predators, leadership changes at school districts and state agencies, and parole revocation for a notorious convicted murderer. She also received accolades for exposing a series of unnatural deaths in veterans’ nursing homes and questionable financial practices at Epic Charter Schools, which Oklahoma’s state auditor later declared the largest abuse of taxpayer funds “in the history of this state.”
JOEY GOODMAN (1951- ) joined the sports staff of The Lawton Constitution in February 1972 covering high school basketball. He soon was elevated to full time and in 1986 was named sports editor leading the department until 2018. He lists efforts to improve cooperation between the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association and state media outlets as one of the highlights of his long career. In 2019, he was one of the first three state media members honored with the OSSAA Media Appreciation Award. Other honors include Oklahoma Press Association column writing (2003) and best sports sections in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2010 and 2014.
WALTER HARRISON (1888-1961) was known as “Skipper.” Born in Kentucky and an Iowa State College graduate, he worked for the Sioux City Daily, Des Moines Register, San Francisco Bulletin and Call, Winnipeg Tribune, and Minneapolis Tribune. Harrison was managing editor of The Daily Oklahoman/Oklahoma City Times (1916-1946) and president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors before becoming a KOMA radio news commentator while editing the weekly magazine Free Speech. He became part owner/manager of KTOW radio in 1948 and served on the Oklahoma City Council (1949-1957). Harrison was board chairman of Britton Printing Co. and owned the North Star, an Oklahoma City weekly, until his death.
CHRIS LINCOLN (1947- ) has excelled in all aspects of sports broadcasting in his 45-year career. He was sports director from 1974-1981 at KTUL TV while also hosting coaches shows for OU, OSU, TU and ORU. He was a network play-by-play announcer for ABC/ESPN. In 1981, he was co-founder of Winner Communications that became the largest independently owned sports production company. Chris became “Voice of The Thoroughbreds” in logging over 10 million airline miles covering the horse racing industry worldwide. After Winnercomm’s sale in 2006, Chris returned as KTUL sports director from 2007-2012. He continues as producer and host of Oklahoma Sportscene.
DON MECOY (1960- ) started at The Oklahoman in 1986. He worked every newsgathering desk at the newspaper, with stints as city editor, business editor and managing editor. A University of Oklahoma graduate, he has won awards for writing news, features and headlines. He served as a director of the Oklahoma Press Association for four years until leaving the industry in 2023. Perhaps his proudest journalistic accomplishment was when he was the only one of 12 media witnesses to properly quote a condemned man’s last words (“assalamu alaikum,” not “I’m still awake”). As he says, “Sometimes you gotta make one more phone call.”
DEE MORALES (1950- ) was among the first group of women TV reporters in Oklahoma. She was born in Manchester, England and attended St. Gregorys College and Oklahoma City University. Dee was an award-winning reporter at KWTV with AP/UPI awards and an Emmy nomination for a documentary on teenage births. She became a field producer with ABC news in 1995 and covered national news in a five-state region for World News Tonight and Good Morning America. She also freelanced for NBC News, Inside Edition, MTV, Crime Watch Daily, Al Jazeera and BBC News. Dee lives in Oklahoma City and still freelances for news and sports.
CHUCK MUSGROVE (1964- ) has a passion for truth. He believes as journalists we have a responsibility to hold those in power accountable and a duty to keep people informed when life or property is threatened. For three decades, the KFOR managing editor has kept his team on a steady course. As a photojournalist, Chuck covered everything from doghouse fires to the fall of the Soviet Union. In 1994, Chuck left the street to take the managing editor position. The Oklahoma City bombing, deadly tornados and the tragic deaths of four of his co-workers has made him the journalist we see today.
MYRON PATTON (1962- ) graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1984. He launched his first on-air duties in 1988 and was the market’s only live morning show sportscaster. That led to KOCO’s weekend sports anchor. In Shreveport, La., he became the main news anchor at KSLA-TV. After returning to Oklahoma in 2007, he became the state’s first Black sports director or main anchor at KOKH Fox 25. Add sports talk radio jobs at Sportsradio 640, 1400 KNOR and CBS Sports Radio to his career full of sports. Beyond his many honors, he has covered the biggest sporting events. And he did it using the highest standards of journalistic ethics.
AMY LANEE RAYMOND (GREENE) (1976-2021) worked her entire career at The Oklahoman. A Kansas native, she left high school a year early and earned a biology degree in 1997 from Oklahoma Christian University, where she was The Talon editor. She was a reporter during her internship/early years at The Oklahoman before finding her passion as a copy editor and designer. A tireless worker with a brilliant intellect, she was the award-winning chief copy editor, layout and design director, training and implementation director, project manager, nightside managing editor, night news director and digital news editor/lead planner. She married writer and editor Ken Raymond in 2004. They met at the newspaper.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD:
VANCE HARRISON (1953- ) graduated from Cornell University in 1975 with a degree in Political Science. He began his career in 1978 at WXRT-FM in Chicago. Ten years later, he became general manager of KOMA-A/F and KRXO-FM KMGL-FM (Oklahoma City) from 1988-2004. Concurrently he was the managing partner of Sooner Sports Properties (University of Oklahoma Athletics Multi-Media Rights Holder) and oversaw radio stations in Tulsa. Since 2007 he has been the president of the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters advocating for all radio and television journalists in Oklahoma. He was inducted into OAB’s Hall of Fame in 2019.
JOYCE JACKSON (1944- ) is regarded as Oklahoma television’s first Black woman journalist. She started at KOCO-TV in 1970 and was a producer/talk show host and reporter. She graduated from Central State University in 1982. She also was a radio talk show host and editor of the Capital City Courier in Springfield, Ill. After more than a decade in news, she was public information officer, communications director and executive communications administrator in the Oklahoma and Illinois corrections departments. She was a National Institute of Corrections media consultant (1988-2009). In 2015, she began publishing Shades of Oklahoma magazine. She was inducted into the Oklahoma Black Journalists Hall of Fame in 2009.
For immediate release
For more information, contact: Joe Hight, jhight@uco.edu or (405) 974-5924.
